Likeability[1] - part 7

I have noticed recently that people like to work with likeable people, even if these nice people do not know very much or produce much value or are simply, incompetent.This probably explains why most companies do not do well.

If you look at the major car manufacturers in the world outside China, Toyota Motor Corporation is the only truly outstanding car maker. Its profit margin is higher than the combined profits of all its competitors. The Toyota Production System is one of the reasons for its excellent profitability.

The Toyota Production System has been well studied by many great manufacturing companies all over the world, but surprisingly only few companies outside Japan have implemented it within the last fifty years.

In 1985, Professor Daniel T. Jones spent US$5 million and five years to study 90 different car factories in the world. In 1992, he published the book, “The machine that changed the world”. He used Toyota Production system as the reference for Lean Production System. Lean in this context means there is little waste in the production system.

It has been almost two decades since the introduction of the generalized concept of Lean Production System, yet the wide spread implementation of this system has not really taken off. It has not been able to get a foothold in many companies. One of the main reasons why CEOs of most manufacturing companies do not favor the idea of implementing the lean production system is because they do not want to be seen as a nasty boss. Everyone wants to be a likeable manager or a nice CEO.

When Alan Greespan, Ben Benanke, Congressmen, Wall Street, CEO’s of listed companies or the news media talks, it is full of likeability but never the truths.

Unless the American public can make these people tell the truth, otherwise, there will be endless troubles for the Americans.

Note: The Toyota Production System is more than the lean production system. It has two other core fundamental elements not found in the lean production system. They are industrial engineering and the ‘just-in-time’ philosophy.